Microclimatic design requires knowledge of the climate conditions, understanding of the ways that landscape elements affect microclimate and methods of applying this knowledge through landscape design to create microclimates that are comfortable for people and minimize the energy use of buildings. In this article it will be introduced the most important components and characteristics of microcl...

Natural hazards risk assessment requires data on the built environment. This paper reports an image analysis method that can extract building features, mainly roof plan areas, for potential vulnerability analysis. Both pixeland object-based image processing methods are adopted. First, red/green/blue colour bands and image textures are incorporated in a supervised artificial neural network class...

The roof solar chimney (RSC) is a low cost passive ventilation technique for reducing the energy consumption for cooling buildings. This study examines the performance and level of energy savings by simulating a detached home in four climates with RSC, cross-ventilation, and standard ventilation strategies. Each case was simulated in ESP-r for baseline and high efficiency construction, detached...

Two studies were conducted with the objective of quantifying the carbon storage potential of extensive green roofs. The first was performed on eight roofs in Michigan and four roofs in Maryland, ranging from 1 to 6 years in age. All 12 green roofs were composed primarily of Sedum species, and substrate depths ranged from 2.5 to 12.7 cm. Aboveground plant material was harvested in the fall of 20...

Green roofs provide ecosystem services through evapotranspiration and nutrient cycling that depend, among others, on plant species, substrate type, and substrate depth. However, no study has assessed thoroughly how interactions between these factors alter ecosystem functions and multifunctionality of green roofs. We simulated some green roof conditions in a pot experiment. We planted 20 plant s...